Garage door operators, over the years, continue to increase in sophistication through the use of advanced electronic components and control techniques. Despite such advances, a garage door operator inherently is a mechanical device, requiring the use of motors, springs, rails and other mechanical parts to raise and lower a garage door. Typically, proper maintenance of the garage door operator requires the user to lubricate the rails of the garage door operator, check for wear of the components, such as the springs, and test the system safety devices on a periodic basis. For example, it is recommended that the feature for reversing a door in response to an obstruction be tested every month. This requires the user to open the garage door fully and place a 1½″ thick piece of wood (such as a 2×4 laid flat) on the floor in the center of the door. The user then pushes the transmitter or wall button to close the door. The door should reverse when it strikes the wood. If the door does not reverse, the owner should adjust the door or the garage door operator. As such, regular maintenance of many components of the garage door operator is an important aspect of ensuring safe and proper trouble-free operation of the garage door operator.
Presently maintenance schedules, prescribing the service intervals and types of service required to keep the garage door operating properly, typically are printed in the owners manual for the users convenience. Unfortunately, manuals tend to become misplaced, discarded or ignored and their instructions forgotten. In many cases, subsequent home or business owners never are provided the opportunity of reading the owners manual before acquiring the garage door operator. As a result, maintenance schedules may not be followed over significantly long time periods, resulting in unnecessary wear and tear of the equipment and eventual premature failure.